Chapter 183

Pushing past Tina, I exited the bathroom, nearly running straight into Dylan.

“Hazel? You okay?”

“I’m fine,” I told him, not wanting him to worry about how unnerved Tina’s words left me. He likely noticed, eyeing me strangely. “I just want to get back to my party.”

He stepped to the side and let me walk past. I didn’t look back and he didn’t say anything.

Back in the meeting room, Maria returned to me with a piece of cake. I didn’t eat much of it.

“You aren’t hungry?” Maria asked.

“Maria…” I began. “If I have to go to the bathroom again, come with me next time, okay?” I felt so juvenile asking for something like that. In high school, girls would always seem to travel to places in packs, even to the bathroom. I thought I’d outgrown something like that.

But I didn’t want to be cornered by Tina again.

“Okay,” she said to me, without any pushback at all. She seemed to understand without me having to explain it. “You got it.”

“Thanks,” I said.

Maria stuck by my side like glue the rest of the party. Tina never came back. Whether Dylan showed her the door, or if she left on her own, I wasn’t sure. Dylan eventually did return and seemed to enjoy himself, talking with everyone, though I didn’t miss the few worried looks he shot my direction.

At the end of the party, Logan made his way to me. Leaning in, he whispered, “May I come over tonight?”

Did he think I would ever deny him?

“Of course,” I said. I didn’t know what the future held. If Tina was right or if Logan and I would survive the distance, but I wasn’t going to waste one second without him that I could be spending with him.

He flashed me his cocksure grin, the one that made me week in the knees. For a while, my worry was sated.

Logan arrived to my apartment that night in the evening after dinner. Even though I had already eaten, he brought takeout with him. He’d probably been working late at the office again.

“Your replacement can’t handle as many tasks as you,” he said by way of an explanation. “I don’t begrudge him, it only proves you are actually a superhero. We’re going to have to hire a second person to pick up the slack.”

I liked the praise, even if it was about how much of a workaholic I was, so I snuggled closer to him on the couch. When he finished eating, he placed his empty takeout container on the coffee table and then wrapped his arm around my shoulders.

I sunk into his side, enjoying his warmth and closeness. We sat like that for a long moment, simply enjoying each other’s presence, before Logan spoke again.

“I’m going to miss you so much that I’m starting to miss you already, knowing it’s coming.”

“Me too,” I said, understanding what he meant.

Most of my personal items were already in boxes stacked in various areas of the apartment. I was almost entirely packed, simply waiting for the movers to come.

Logan had hired the best for me, not wanting me or my friends to overexert ourselves by moving me on our own. I appreciated the gesture.

But I was still sad to go.

This apartment had been my escape from my parents and my sister. It was proof that I could crawl my own way out of any situation and be self-sustaining.

An apartment was just a place to store my stuff, but to me, it felt like a symbol of the independent person I had become.

Always, I knew this stop on my journey, this apartment and this job, was temporary. Someday, I wanted to get back to chasing my true dream of being an actress. This was just a place to catch my breath for a moment before putting myself out there again in an uncertain profession.

Yet that didn’t mean I couldn’t mourn losing this place.

“I’ve made a good life here,” I said more to myself than the man next to me.

Logan tensed somewhat, not enough for alarm but enough for me to sense.

“This isn’t a permanent move,” Logan said. He sounded confident. I wanted to believe him, but I had seen the way he fell in line when his grandfather called.

I didn’t know if our relationship would ever be able to stand in the sunlight. I hated to think it, but… the only way I could see myself returning to this town was if I separated from Logan. For now, to keep the peace and our connection, I was willing to accept the distance.

“I’ll do right by you, Hazel. My wife.”

Hope filled my heart.

“I just need some time to get everything in order,” he said.

I’d give him time. Hell, I was so lost on him that I would have given him anything he asked for.

I tilted my face up toward him. Immediately, he leaned down and kissed me.

Humming, I relaxed more fully. Gently, he turned toward me and laid me down on my back on the couch, with him crawling over me.

We stayed there for a long while, hands clasped while we breathed each other’s names. When we were sated, Logan carried me to the bedroom and held me.

For a time, I lingered in the soft space between asleep and awake. Logan brushed his fingers through my hair. Up on one elbow, he looked down at me as I peeked through my eyelashes.

Maybe he thought I was asleep. Or maybe it was the moonlight that inspired him.

But in that moment, voice as light as a whisper, he said, “I love you, Hazel.”

I fell asleep fully a few moments later.

When I woke up, I didn’t know if it had been a dream.

With my personal effects loaded in my car, and the movers already on their way with my boxes to Russford, I stood in the parking lot of my apartment, saying goodbye to my friends.

Maria, Megan, Rachel, Dylan, and Logan were all there, each cheering me on.

“I’ll miss you,” Maria said, hugging me.

“You better call us,” Megan said, next in line.

“Group chat!” Rachel insisted on her turn.

Dylan sighed as I stood before him, then opened his arms for a hug. I immediately gave it. He held me only a moment, before patting me awkwardly on the shoulder. “You’re going to do great,” he said.

“Thanks,” I said.

Logan cleared his throat. Dylan dipped his head, acknowledging his friend.

Hands twitching, Logan stood tense and straight. I wanted to hold him, but we’d already agreed not to make a scene at this public goodbye, not knowing who could be watching.

“Goodbye,” I said to him.

“To hell with it,” he muttered and surging forward, pulled me into his arms.

I exhaled a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding as a sense of calm filled me.

We were going to be okay. We had to be.

Too soon, our hug had to end.

“I need to leave,” I said, my voice muffled against his chest.

“Yeah,” he said.

Neither of us let go.

Later, I got into my car and drove away. As Logan and my friends grew smaller in my rear-view mirror, a sense of loss curled up inside of me.

It wasn’t a forever goodbye.

Why did it still hurt like one?